The appointment of Peter Navarro, a strident China critic to lead the incoming Trump Administration's newly formed National Trade Council, sends a clear message that the U.S - Chine relationship will not be 'business as usual' after January 20th, 2017.

The author of "Death by China" and "Crouching Tiger: What China’s Militarism Means for the World" has for years warned that the US is engaged in an economic war with China and should adopt a more aggressive stance. Navarro says that China engages in currency manipulation and abusive trade policies that are hurting the United States.

He blames Beijing for the loss of 57,000 American factories and 25million jobs through spying,manipulation and destroying American lives by flooding the US with illegally subsidised and “contaminated, defective and cancerous” exports.

The Trump transition team described Mr Navarro as a “visionary economist” who would “develop trade policies that shrink our trade deficit, expand our growth, and help stop the exodus of jobs from our shores”.

Trump during his campaign repeatedly said that China is ripping off the United States, and he threatened to impose a 45 percent tariff on imported goods from China.

“I read one of Peter’s books on America’s trade problems years ago and was impressed by the clarity of his arguments and thoroughness of his research,” President-Elect Trump said in a statement. “He has presciently documented the harms inflicted by globalism on American workers, and laid out a path forward to restore our middle class. He will fulfill an essential role in my administration as trade adviser.”